Sermon Tone Analysis

A famous quote resounds with clarity for us today: "All the water in the world, no matter how hard it tries, can never sink a ship unless it gets inside.

All the evil influence of the world, no matter how hard it tries, can never sink a Christian's soul unless it gets inside."

Love Pays Off the Law in Full

Date: 16-12-18 817 Echuca

A famous quote resounds with clarity for us today: "All the water in the world, no matter how hard it tries, can never sink a ship unless it gets inside.

All the evil influence of the world, no matter how hard it tries, can never sink a Christian's soul unless it gets inside."

- When addressing the matters of love this little poem is fitting

- The evil of the world is there – we know that – but it won't impact us unless we let it get inside

- Just as a ship stays afloat on water as long as the water doesn't get into the boat, so too, the Christian will stay afloat, providing the evil is kept outside

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- What we will find in this passage is the Christian's charter & it stands in distinction from the world's ways

- Now we do find that there are those in the world that truly love & show love

- I'm not saying that they don't do this, because we know that many do

- However, there are a vast some of people that make up the majority of the world who are more interested in self-love than love of others

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- They, personally, crave love & loyalty, but they fall short of finding it

- I was saying to Pauline this week that it becomes difficult to identify with the world if you have been a Christian for many years

- You tend to forget about what it was like to be void of the Spirit & of life

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- However, when I do think about it, I do remember the hopelessness & the emptiness of my life without the Lord

- Life, to me, was so empty & it seemed vitally non-existent

- Perhaps, that came from my parents divorce & I'm sure it had some bearing

Q.

But what is life like without the Lord?

Q.

What is life like without His presence in it?

- I could say that, deep inside me, I was like a zombie – the living dead

- Seriously, I'm not making this up or stretching the truth

- Sure, I had my fair share of fun & of laughter, but when it's all said & done, you can have all that stuff & still be empty or dead inside [totally]

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- You want to know why our drug culture thrives – there you have it in a nut shell

- The emptiness people feel so acutely cannot be removed & so they attempt to fill it with drugs – or anything really – just to try & find life, purpose & meaning

- They want to feel alive with meaning & purpose & existence, but nothing satisfies

- As Pascal implied in his writing, that we have a God-shaped vacuum within us that can only be filled by the living Lord

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- The people of the world tenaciously hold on to their independence, of course, & refuse to relinquish it

- That is their problem & that was my problem until the graciousness of God overruled my stubborn heart

- Sin, from a general perspective, is the infection of the soul & when I talk about sin, I'm not strictly taking about the acts of sinful people

- Sin is the state a person is in – it's what makes the person a sinner

- The sinful acts they do are merely the outworking of a diseased heart

- Not only does sin rob you of life, it also actively deadens any responsiveness to God

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- But as says, the Christian is not dead, but alive in Christ

- He or she is filled with God's presence – that is His Spirit & the Spirit enlivens the Christian

- Sins are forgiven, but more than this, the diseased heart is renewed & restored

- Sin & it's scrawny tentacles are cut off for it no longer has any root

- The root has been changed & infused with the image of Christ

- The Christian is more powerful than he or she could ever imagine

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Q.

But David, why do I struggle with sin?

- Paul told us why in chp.

12

- We are still thinking as if we are a part of the fabric of the world

- We haven't transitioned

- We have allowed our mind to be seduced by the ways of the world – we have allowed the water to get into the boat

- Instead, we are to be transformed by the renewing of the mind

- To start with, that renewal must begin with who you now are in Christ

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- Since we have an untapped power within us, then we need to release it

- Here in this passage, the apostle makes it clear that this power is love, the love of Christ which has been poured into our hearts

- We have been transformed & infused with the love of Christ

- Know who you are – stop thinking that you are just the same person you were before you became a Christian

- God has made changes – He has & is doing renovation work

- Release what God has done for you & in you

1.

An Endless Obligation to Love

1.

An Endless Obligation to Love

- I want us to see that the key word in this section is “obligation”

- The obligation to show love, act in love, practise love

- There is a saying about things that are certain in life

Q.

You know it, don't you?

The things that are certain are death & taxes

- I could add another one but, of course, it is not certain that everyone will get one – but that is a home loan

- Most of us, at one period in time, have had a bank loan of some sort, perhaps, a home loan

- That debt is there for many years, until it is paid off

- Our aim is to pay it off

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- However, there is one debt or obligation that the apostle says we SHOULD never be paid off & that is the debt of love

- One commentator makes a very interesting observation...

He says, that the continuing debt of love...

“from one point of view is an outstanding debt is, from another, a full payment to the law” — Donald Garlington

- He's suggesting that we are obligated to the law's demands because it is the good will of God, but when we continue in this never ending debt of love, the law is fulfilled – it's demands have been met or the law's debt is “paid off”

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- The Christian, instead of being overcome by evil is to overcome evil with good – to overcome is to act in love or to be loving

—6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.

—1 Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.

2 Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.

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- Notice what the apostle raises here:

—9 For this, “YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”

- These are from the last half of the 10 commandments & they relate to our relationship with our fellow man

- The first 3 are clear enough in the impact they have on other people, but the last one has more to do with one's motives than anything else

- You shall not covet

- Probably the reason for this is that all other sins tend to stem from wrong motives

- The apostle is just using this selection here as an example of how love is the positive side to these negatives

- In other words, love is not exercised, for example, when a murder is committed

- So when love is in full flight, the law's demands are met

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- This is where the Jews fell so short in understanding the Christian's position

- They thought the rejection of the Law of God meant that Christians were lawless

- The combination of God's grace for the worst of sinners & no need to be under the law, meant that Christians promoted lawlessness

—8 And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), “Let us do evil that good may come”?

Their condemnation is just.

- In the Jews desire for family supremacy, as in “we alone are God's special people”, they blinded themselves to the true reality that had come with Jesus

- Through the cross sins were not only forgiven, but the power of sin was broken

- As the power of sin is broken & the power of love comes to life, the true fulfilment of the law has come about

Q.

Is this not what the prophet Jeremiah foretold?

—33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

34 “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

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- We ought to remember that love is defined by God & must take into consideration more than just an individual

- For example, Paul pronounces an anathema on the false teachers of Galatia